Color & Design Trends

Beer Time? Dirty Socks? More Appeal to Men than Butterscotch & Lexington Park

CIL is betting that paint names like MO MONEY, SARGEANT MAJOR and DIRTYSOCKS—all featured in this game room—will better appeal to men.

When women are selecting a paint color, they are likely to feel inspired by such evocative names as Cloud Nine,Fairytale Green and Moonlight Drive. Men, on the other hand—not so much.

That's the rationale behind Canadian paint brand CIL's recent introduction of a new paint color collection geared especially toward men. The colors, which are presented in a brochure called "Ultimate Man Caves," have such male-oriented names as Iced Vodka instead of Cloud Nine, Mo Money instead of Fairytale Green and Maverick instead of Moonlight Drive.

There is even a color called Beer Time, which is likely to resonate more with men than the exact same hue when it's called Butterscotch. CIL bills this the "Ultimate Man Caves" collection as containing colors that men won't be embarrassed to say out loud. Other more masculine substitutes include Five-O'ClockShadow instead of Plateau Grey, Sargeant Major instead of Acadia Gem and Dirty Socks instead of Lexington Park. There are also names such as Midlife Crisis, Brute Force and Deathstar.

The object of Ultimate Man Caves is to get males more enthusiastic about the painting process. The names were created with the help of the general public. In August, CIL Paints launched a Facebook contest calling on Canadians to rename existing CIL paint colors for a more masculine audience and more than 15,000 respondents rose to challenge from coast to coast.

Featuring CIL paint color names for men such as MIDLIFE CRISIS,BRUTE FORCE and DEATHSTAR, the walls of this bathroom have"masculine" written all over them.

The new CIL Paints brochure—featuring 20 of the most popular paint colors for men, as determined by both Canadian men and women—is now being featured in-store alongside CIL’s existing display of more than 1,200 colors. The original paint names will continue to be part of the present CIL collection of colors.

“When it comes to paint names, it’s all about the emotional connection and our research shows that men and women tend to relate to paint names differently,” says Alison Goldman, Marketing Communications Manager for CIL Paints. “CIL Paints is excited to take the lead in launching a color collection designed specifically for men, especially since studies show that while a larger percentage of women tend to choose paint colors for their home, it’s often men who give the colors a final nod.”

For more information, or to view CIL’s new Ultimate Man Caves brochure online, visit CIL's website. And see below for a fun video of how men and women perceive colors differently, depending on what they are called!